cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Anonymous User
Not applicable

Now TV Smart Box HD Channels

I have just been reading about the new Now TV Smart box. It is advertised as "Get over 60 Freeview channels including 12 in glorious HD" I would like to know what channels are available in HD before I purchase. I have tried the "Contact Us" option but I keep being taken back to the same place with NO contact us options. Thank you for your assistance

26 REPLIES 26
SeeMoreDigital
Legend 5
Legend 5

@DarylM wrote:

I am in the Anglia region and have been watching the local news via my Now TV Smart box (so by an aerial).  The standard-def ITV channel shows the Anglia news, but ITV HD shows Meridian.


 

Hi Andy,

 

To clarify ITV1 HD Anglia East is not available via Freeview yet, only via satellite (11,097MHz | V | 23000 | 3/4). Currently the main Tacolneston, Sandy Heath and Sudbury transmitters output ITV1 HD Meridian South Smiley Sad

 

Looks okay on satellite though 😉

Anonymous User
Not applicable

@schnapps I live near Bristol but the local Freeview transmitter is pants so I point my aerial towards Wenvoe and get perfect reception on all the Freeview channels.

 

Personally I am looking forward to having one box for all my live TV. Plus the 50hz output is a big bonus. As for recording I'll be using a Raspberry Pi with 2 tuners. 

 

schnapps
Legend 5
Legend 5

@Anonymous User

 

I am Lucky the Wenvo local transmitter is only about approximately 15 miles from my house and on a dark clear night from my Bedroom window i can see the warning light on top of the transmitter mast for low flying aircraft.

 

When i did an automatic channel search on the NowTV smart box menu settings i was given two options to pick Wales (Wenvo) or England (Which i am guessing was Mendip).

 

When selecting Wenvo my local transmitter the box picked up about 170 channels (TV & Radio) can't be bothered to go through the channel list to see if there any duplicate stations etc and to be honest i tend to watch the HD channels only (can't stand watching anything in SD the picture looks terrible on any Freeview connected device) .

 

All my other TV viewing is spread across BT TV (mainly sports) NowTV, Netflix and Amazon.

 

Haven't done much comparison on the NowTV smart box over the SD channels, but the HD pictures look nice and sharp on my TV and IMO is on par with PQ with my Panasonic TV inbuilt Freeview Tuner and my BT UHD YouView box. Smiley Happy

 

Also, i am guessing if you live in Bristol and you are tuned into the Welsh Wenvo Transmitter, that all your BBC programmes from England are being watched from the BBC iplayer app or some other source ? 

 

 

Another thing worth mentioning, is that the NowTV new smart box uses 50hz video playback & has a quad core processor under the bonnet and navigating the UI appears snappier to me compared to any other NowTV device that i  have owned (the BBC IPlayer app works fantastic on the new smart box over both the live and catch up BBC service if you have a good sufficient broadband internet speed).

 

 

BTW - I had a Raspberry PI for a while in my home set up (firstly used it for XBMC then has a Squeeze box server, now the PI is sadly gathering dust in my cupboard) it has now been replaced with an Amazon Fire TV box and a cheap 500GB NAS drive server which i mainly use for Spotify streaming to my Squeeze box devices dotted around the house. Smiley Very Happy   

 

 

4268
Legend 5
Legend 5

@schnapps I thought you lived close to your local transmitter. Mine is 15 miles away and I thought that was a long way.
Please take a moment to click thanks or marked as solution if this answered your question. I am a community contributor and pop on when I can.
schnapps
Legend 5
Legend 5

@4268

 

Been thinking about the distance since your post, 15 miles approx would be driving by road to get there in my car.

 

Where as the direct line of sight distance to the transmitter mast would be much less (don't know how far though).

 

Also, where i live there are no high rise buildings (like if you live in the big city) or mountains blocking the transmitter path which would have an effect on the signal strength or quality. Smiley Happy

 

Anyway all good my end with the number of channels and signal strength from the roof aerial. Smiley Very Happy

SeeMoreDigital
Legend 5
Legend 5

If anyone's interested....

 

If you see 'vertically' polarised aerials on houses they're pointing towards 'local' transmitters, which a far less powerful than transmitters that offer 'horizontally' polarised signals 😉


@SeeMoreDigital wrote:

If anyone's interested....

 

If you see 'vertically' polarised aerials on houses they're pointing towards 'local' transmitters, which a far less powerful than transmitters that offer 'horizontally' polarised signals 😉


True - thinking back to the launch of DTT (OnDigital - remember that? Or NoDigital as I used to call it!) our aerial ended up being aligned to a "local" tx about 12 miles away, rather than one of two "main" tx's (both almost 30 miles away in opposite directions), because the signal from the "local" tx was better than from either of the more distand main tx's. And so it has stayed. Nowadays we could probably get a better signal from the distant tx's, but that would incur the cost & bother of getting somebody to do it - something that most people don't do unless the aerial falls down!